I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 529

Three months later.

South of Crossroads.

In front of the Black Lake. Forward base.

Day of Stage 30.

***

Already the 30th defense battle.

Every stage that is a multiple of 5 is considered a boss stage, and particularly difficult enemies appear.

Up until now, monsters from the top 10 of the Demon King’s hierarchy—the Nightmare Legion Commanders—had been dispatched.

However, perhaps because I defeated several Nightmare Legion Commanders in the dungeon through other means, the number of Nightmare Legion Commanders available for the boss stage became insufficient. So, a legion from another top-tier monster group appeared in this boss stage.

The ‘Moving Forest’ Legion.

Originally, they were a legion that stayed quietly in their own territory in a corner of the dungeon and did not invade the human world. But this time, these trees invaded the human world.

This cluster of huge trees, living and moving, is a fortress, a weapon, and a maze in itself.

This forest, made of thousands upon thousands of trees slowly advancing, does not take significant damage from most attacks. It lures and ‘devours’ the victims who approach it.

Those who go near this forest get lost inside, slowly wither away, forgetting the flow of time and the movement of space.

There are two ways to defeat this cursed forest.

The first is to set the forest on fire.

Like trees, they take effective damage from fire attribute attacks. Inflict powerful damage to burn them to death along with the forest in one go.

In a way, it can be called a direct approach. That’s how I dealt with them in the game too.

However, there is a big problem: these trees start to glow the moment fire touches their bodies.

These trees, which had been moving quietly and secretly, begin to emit bizarre screams as soon as they sense their skin burning. They lift their roots from the ground and rush across the land.

And they find and kill the attacker who set them on fire.

From the moment they catch fire until the moment their bodies are completely burned, the time is not long, but the berserk tree monsters unleash a ferocious power comparable to that of an ogre of the same level.

Thousands upon thousands of these guys are going berserk and rushing at you. They can crush everything, including our fortress walls.

So, the second strategy.

Approach the forest with a small elite force, and taking advantage of the gaps where the forest splits, lured by the ‘bait’, find the boss entity located in the center of the forest—the ‘Elder Tree’.

The first tree that created this forest, and the legion commander of the tree monsters that infected other trees with the curse. The cursed, burnt root. The Elder Tree.

While the forest is densely packed together, it emits its own aura of bewilderment, making it impossible to find its location.

However, if we can send a decoy force to split them apart, the density of the forest will decrease, and we can order Damian to search.

And if we can find it, Damian can end it with a single shot.

This method was decided as the least damaging tactic, and the Sky Knights were chosen as the decoy.

This knight order, which can run through the sky, had the best mobility among all the forces of the World Guardian Front.

Although the Sky Knights had also been considerably depleted due to the fierce battles of the past three months, their situation was much better than others.

While all military groups, large or small, had suffered casualties, the elite Sky Knights had not lost a single soldier.

Mikhail also achieved boss kills in Stage 28 and Stage 29.

Mikhail was an excellent knight, her subordinates were also powerful, and they could even fly.

They were one of the few cards we could trust and send out to face the boss stage. So, I ordered them to sortie, and Mikhail and the knights readily agreed.

And then-

An accident occurred.

***

At first, it went according to plan.

The Sky Knights, flying at a low altitude, glided over the ‘Moving Forest’ and lured the trees.

The trees stretched out their branches towards the griffons and knights moving nearby, but the Sky Knights skillfully maintained their distance.

The Sky Knights hovered over the ‘Moving Forest’, luring them and tearing their formation into pieces.

As the decoy operation succeeded—when the Elder Tree in the center of the forest finally revealed itself.

The very moment that the monster legion commander, with its body charred black and its horribly split trunk looking like a grotesque smile, was spotted.

“-I can take it down.”

Mikhail drove her griffon down and plunged like a thunderbolt.

“Your Highness?!”

“No! Your Majesty-!”

It was a completely impulsive action.

The role of the Sky Knights was only to fly at a safe distance and disrupt the forest.

Her subordinate knights were all shocked and tried to stop her, but it was already too late. Mikhail had already jumped into the enemy commander’s arms.

The young boy knight saw an opportunity to kill the Elder Tree at that moment.

Whether to hesitate or not in the face of an opportunity to kill the enemy commander and become a hero.

This is the standard that divides those who can write legends from those who cannot. Mikhail did not miss that opportunity.

…But Mikhail didn’t know.

What if that opportunity was a lie in the first place?

What if what she thought was an opportunity was a trap?

She didn’t know that if she couldn’t distinguish that, she couldn’t become a hero and couldn’t write a legend.

Whirr!

The Elder Tree stretched out vine tendrils like whips towards Mikhail, who had jumped into its arms.

Mikhail swung her magic-imbued rapier, cutting down all the vine tendrils and leaping into the Elder Tree’s embrace.

“Haaah!”

Mikhail’s rapier flew towards the Elder Tree’s face, scattering crimson magic.

Thud!

And, it stopped.

Just before the blade touched, the Elder Tree spread spiderweb-like vine tendrils that it had scattered everywhere, binding Mikhail and the griffon she was riding.

It was a split-second difference.

If her sword had been 0.1 seconds faster, Mikhail’s strike would have defeated the enemy commander, and she would have added a new line to her and the Sky Knights’ legend.

But it was 0.1 seconds too slow.

“Kuh?!!”

Mikhail, her whole body bound by vines, twisted her body, letting out a painful groan.

The Sky Knights, who were watching this from the sky above, urgently drove their griffons down.

“Your Highness!”

“Please wait a moment! We will save you!”

All the remaining knights jumped in to save Mikhail, the crown prince and commander of the knights.

But in the meantime, the forest had already finished preparing to kill the intruders.

Tree branches were densely stretched in the air, forming a maze.

The Sky Knights tried to break through the maze with their bodies, but at some point, the overlapping branches became too thick to break through head-on, and they had to go around.

They turned sideways, rotated, flipped upside down, and…

In a short time, they got lost in the forest.

The location of the Elder Tree and Mikhail’s figure were not visible. The Sky Knights wandered through the forest, calling out the crown prince’s name until their throats were hoarse.

When they came to their senses, they were scattered.

“What is this?”

“How much time has passed?”

“Where did everyone go? Where’s my griffon?”

“Where is this… what am I here for…?”

“Why is it so… dizzy…”

In various parts of the forest. The Sky Knights were dying.

They were poisoned, hallucinating, tied up by vines, and falling into swamps.

Mikhail, bound by the Elder Tree, could only watch with wide eyes as her subordinates were hunted down by the forest, scattered throughout the forest.

“No, no, no!”

Mikhail cried out desperately, but,

“Get out of the forest now! Hurry! Please…!”

It didn’t reach any of her subordinates.

No matter how much she struggled, the monster’s vines only tightened more strongly around Mikhail’s body.

In the end, she had to watch, one by one, as her precious subordinates died.

She had to watch, one by one, as the knight order was annihilated because of her mistake.

“Aaaaaaaah!”

***

“We have to save the Sky Knights!”

Immediately after the incident, I gave the order.

“Pour fire attacks on the outskirts of the forest! Fire-!”

It was Plan B, a direct approach that was expected to cause more damage. But we couldn’t afford to lose Mikhail and the Sky Knights here.

Bang! Whoosh! Whoosh!

The cannons fired all at once. They were loaded with ammunition that was pre-treated to catch fire easily.

Screech!

Screeeeeech!

The trees on the outskirts of the forest, swept away by the explosions and set on fire, let out strange screams, and one by one, they lifted their roots and stood up.

And-

Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!

They started running forward.

The soldiers trembled at the terrifying sight. But I ordered them to attack even more.

“We need to provoke them more! Keep attacking without stopping!”

The more we attack, the less the monsters’ attention will be focused on the Sky Knights trapped inside.

We need to shake the enemy to increase the possibility of securing a view towards the Elder Tree, so that Damian can snipe and finish it off.

Both clearing this defense battle and rescuing the Sky Knights must be done quickly…!

Bang! Bang! Whoosh!

The cannons fired relentlessly, and the cursed trees burned and poured towards the forward base.

Crash! Boom!

The mines that had been heavily laid exploded as they ran, and the fire net of the cannons was poured over them.

Nevertheless, the trees on fire approached with terrifying speed. The eerie rage they harbored was truly terrifying.

“We must deal with them before they reach the forward base! Fire with all our firepower!”

After repeatedly encouraging the artillerymen, I turned my head sharply.

“Lily!”

“I know!”

Lily activated all the artifacts at the right time and gathered magic power in her hands.

The other mages standing next to her also prepared their magic.

Since each fire attribute mage was precious, I had asked Lily to participate as well. The mages fired their magic in turn.

Whoosh!

The fire wall that Lily created literally formed a wall of flames.

The trees that touched this magic were all burned, but the number of tree monsters was so large that they eventually broke through.

The monsters are now right in front of us. I gritted my teeth. At this rate!

That’s when it happened.

Boom!

Suddenly, more than a dozen pillars of fire fell from the sky. I looked over there in surprise.

An old male mage with a white beard fluttering.

The master of the Ivory Tower, the great mage Diermuidin.

“Diermuidin!”

“Is this the time to call my name?! Hurry up and do your job!”

Diermuidin shouted, as if this was quite a burden for the old man.

I urged Damian, who was still groaning with his eyes on the sniper scope.

“Damian! Not yet?!”

“Not yet… I can’t see it…”

The forest is so dense, and the situation is made even more difficult by the acrid smoke rising from the flames.

‘Damn it! If only my ‘Map Creation’ had worked!’

Perhaps because the Elder Tree itself is a deceptive monster that deceives humans, the location was not specified even though I used the Map Creation trait at the beginning.

As time passed, the tree monsters finally approached the defense line of the forward base.

Even though I had raised several layers of my magic wall, the trees were so tall that they could reach it because they were tangled together.

Lukas, who was standing on the defense line, shouted.

“Prepare for melee combat-!”

“Waaaaaah!”

“Kill the monsters-!”

I gritted my teeth as I watched the melee heroes and soldiers clash with the burning trees.

Thud!

Whoosh-!

“Kuh-heok!”

“Aaaah! It’s hot! It’s hot!”

The soldiers hit by large tree branches fell like bowling pins, and casualties began to occur in an instant.

The brute force of the berserk tree monsters is a problem, and the fire on their bodies is also a problem.

For now, the heroes and soldiers are maintaining the defense line, risking injuries, but if this continues, the damage will become uncontrollable.

And at that moment.

Flash!

A crimson flash flickered in the forest.

It was Mikhail’s magic light. She was signaling us.

I shouted and pointed my hand in that direction.

“Damian, over there! Can you see it?!”

“…Yes, I found it!”

Click!

The magic rifle [Black Queen] began to transform on its own, flashing a white magic light and transforming into its usual long railgun form.

Damian glared with both eyes, aiming the huge magic rifle at the enemy commander.

“Sniping-!”